"Where is the Winter Soldier," a man repeated for what felt like the millionth time.

"I already told you, I don't know where he is."

"And we know that you are lying. We want to know where the Winter Soldier is."

It didn't matter how many times the guy asked. There was no way in hell she was going to give up James. She knew they were coming that night but she also knew they both wouldn't get away, so Natalia sent him away. They were easier to track together. She needed him to be the one that got away. For him all it took were a few stupid words and he would come undone. Natalia at least did not have that program and she could deal with any torture. Anything besides watching James beat himself up over the things he'd done, that broke her heart every time.

Natalia knew that it had to be her who Hydra took so she told him that Steve needed him and that it was urgent and he sounded upset. But that she wasn't sure what was going on and to make sure that no one saw him on his way there. She knew James was completely invisible when he wanted to be. This was a time he needed to be. His life depended on it.

She left him a message on the fridge that she knew only he would understand. A few fridge magnets that to anyone else looked like they might have been randomly thrown on there but not to James. He would figure it out. She knew he would. All it took was an "IMSHH", mashed up together. I'm sorry. Hail Hydra.

She hadn't uttered the words "Hail Hydra" in decades but she needed him to know where she was.

"We have ways of making you talk, Widow," the man threatened.

"Well you've been trying those for about two weeks," Natalia spat back at him. "I wish you luck."

She was trained by these exact people to not tell secrets under this exact form of torture. It was if she was reading out of the textbook she knew what was going to happen before it even did.

The water and the electricity were the worst and when they got mixed together it was almost unbearable. When she passed out her captures refused to accept that and would wake her with smelling salts. They wanted James but she refused to give him up. No one or no thing could make her give that man up. She'd follow him the ends of the earth. Hell, she'd had kill for him and him her.

"It's ironic don't you think, that took James away from me. You froze him and made him into a man I barely recognized. You took everything away from me and you expect me to grateful and help you find him. Go fuck yourself," she growled at them. "I knew you were coming, one of your agents slipped up in the market so I sent him away. I saved him, something you are incapable of doing regardless of what you tell your recruits."

"Are you done," her captor asked.

"Does it matter?"

"No, Miss Romanova. It does not matter. You will tell us. It just a matter of time."

"You keep telling yourself that."

She felt the piecing pinch in her side but as she was tied to a mental chair that was bolted to the ground, she had nowhere to go. She looked to her side as a young girl stuck a knife in it but she refused to scream. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction. It hurt like hell and took every fiber of her being not to scream but she refused. She winced sure but not a single scream escaped her lips.

They finally let her have a moment of piece that Natalia used to fall asleep, it felt like it was the first time in days. To her knowledge it could have been. They kept her locked in a basement with no windows; nothing to give her an idea of what time is was, what day it was.

"Babe," a voice woke her. "Come on, let's go home."

Slowly she regained consciousness and in front of her was a face she wasn't sure if she would ever see again. It wasn't real; there was no way he was here. There were no guards in sight and from what she could see they weren't lying unconscious or dead on the ground. "No," she muttered trying to pull away from him.

"No what? Nat, come on. We've got a short window here."

"You can't be here. It's a trick, so I tell them where the real you is. It's not you," she repeats.

"Nat, it's me. It's really me. You got to believe me." He freed her right arm placing her hand on his cheek while he went to work on the rest of her bonds. "You can feel my skin. It's me."

"No, I won't tell you."

"Natalia, it's James."

"Prove it," she spits in his face.

"Your first mission was to St. Petersburg, you killed a 47 year old man named Alexander. He was a stock trader."

"That's in my file. You're not James."

"I'm working on it," he spit and it took her a second to realize he's not talking to her. He's got a unit in and is talking to a team. "She doesn't think I'm me. She thinks it's a Hydra mind-trick…Well I can't exactly blame her. They would do that."

"Go away. It can't be you." By now the tears had started to stream down her face. More than anything she wanted James to come and rescue her but she knew the likelihood of that was small when she sent him away. She sealed her fate and now Hydra was just playing with her for one last-ditch attempt at getting to James.

"Your favorite flowers are peonies but you don't like to have them in the house because the smell reminds you of funerals. You love Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. You refuse to call me Bucky or Buck. It's always James and even before that you wouldn't call me Winter Soldier. You wouldn't call me anything except Tin Man until you found out my real name and the first time I told you that I loved you was after a mission in Volgograd."

"James? " Natalia breathed almost in relief. There was no way anyone else knew those things. It had be him.

"Oh thank god," he exclaimed. "Cause if that didn't convince you I didn't have much else in my bag of tricks."

"Where is everyone?" she asked.

"They're covering the exits right now."

"I meant Hydra," she corrected him as he finally broke the last tie trapping her to the chair.

"Don't worry about it. We need to go."

"I feel like I should be worried about it."

"Nat, I just need you to focus."

Natalia went to stand but the current knife wound on her side caused her to almost topple over in pain. Thankful for his superhuman reflexes James caught her before she could hit the ground. The cool metal of his arm felt good for a second before it felt like it was cutting into her. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Side," she muttered.

"What the hell did they do to you?"

"I don't know. I blocked most of it out."

"Can you walk out of here?"

"What does the path look like?"

"Mostly clear with many a bump or two along the way."

"Gun," she stated. It wasn't a question if he had one she needed one. Nat knew she would be able to get out of there if she had a gun in her hands. No one could stop her then, especially with James with her.

"Fantastic," he chuckled, tossing one over to her.

"Lead the way."

"There's a door on the right. Then turn left. Barton is covering the roof, Steve and Sam are somewhere." He turned checking before them before quickly tapping his ear twice. "Let's make a timely exit gentlemen."

Everything was in slow motion, as if it was a dream. They came across a soldier in the hallway and before she could even get a shot off, James had already thrown a knife dropping him to the ground. "This is quieter," he whispered. "Let's not let them all know where we are if we don't have too."

"Then why did you give me a gun?"

"In case it was completely necessary," James grunted, taking the knife out of the now dead soldier. "Let's go."

Somehow solely based on magic or the skills of her highly trained friends, Nat and James were able to walk out of the compound without seeing any other soldiers. She figured that Steve and Sam had basically taken care of their exit route. Finally out in the sun she turned around to be able to see James, to actually see him.

"You knew," he growled. "You knew and you send me to Steve's."

"We both wouldn't have made it out of there. It couldn't be you. I couldn't let you go back there."

"So let yourself go back?! It wasn't exactly great times for you in there either."

"I could handle it!"

"And I couldn't?!"

"I don't have words like you do. I couldn't let them do that to you. I just got you back," she cries.

"Three weeks Nat. It took us three weeks to find you. You're not fine. I know what happens in there better than anyone."

"I…I'm." As if the gods wants to play some cruel joke she started to spin, the ground getting closer and closer with each second.

"Yeah, you're fine," James muttered, catching her for the second time in only a few minutes.